Blood, Hell and Handprints
by EliotWinchester
Summary: When Sam and Dean investigate strange occurrences in Bon Temps they get more than they bargained for. With Dean kidnapped, Sam is suddenly thrown into the vampire antics of the small town. Not knowing who to trust and with unexpected arrivals at every turn, a troubling journey of trust, love and betrayal proves to be a crucial lesson for both brothers, as well as the local vamps.
1. Damn Fangers

"Damn fangers!" Dean exclaimed, slamming his hand down onto the steering wheel. Sam fought the urge to sigh; he had heard this speech so often he could practically recite it word for word.

"I mean it's bad enough that the whole damn world knows about them now, but then this bitch comes along…" Dean gestured violently towards the radio, from which the smooth voice of Nan Flanagan could be heard advocating vampire rights as usual. Dean scoffed before continuing.

"I can't believe people actually fall for this crap! I wish I could stake the whole damn lot!" Finally reaching the end of his tether, Dean switched over to a cassette tape of some classic rock band. Sam rolled his eyes, but was thankful that Dean had at least cut it short tonight. He rolled down the window and leaned into the breeze, even the nights in Louisiana were baking hot at this time of year.

"I'm starving." Dean finally said after about an hour of no noise except Metallica playing moderately quietly.

"Well next place we come across we'll go get some food okay?" Sam said, relieved to have a chance to stretch his legs. He had grown out of the leg space in the Impala when he was sixteen, but he'd never told Dean. He knew how much he loved this car; he'd never get rid of it so it was useless to whine. Besides, he didn't want Dean to feel anymore guilty about the things he liked.

About ten minutes later they saw a sign for a little town named Bon Temps and it was only a few minutes after that before they swung into a make-shift parking lot outside a relatively decent looking bar. The neon sign on the roof shone the name Merlotte's into the night.

Sam jumped out of the car as quick as he could and shook the cramp out of his legs. It looked nice enough from the outside, despite the number of trucks in the lot suggesting a high population of rednecks. The light flooding out from the windows looked warm and friendly, and a gentle hum of music and chatter came drifting out of the door as it opened. A couple came walking out, their arms entwined around each other waists, giggling slightly.

Inside Sam was surprised to find that Merlotte's was maybe one of the nicest bars he'd been in, at least on a job anyway. It had an impressive number of booths and tables to their left and on the right there was a pool table, which Sam could see Dean eyeing. In front of the entrance was a long bar, where a man was sat at one of the many bar stools. It had an impressive array of spirits lining the wall behind it, and Sam noticed a display fridge with a number of bottles of Tru Blood. Everything was made of some form of wood, dark and spotlessly polished, which gave the place a sort of cozy glow.

They were greeted by a woman with dyed red hair and a very strong southern accent. Her name tag read 'Arlene'. She smiled warmly at them as she went through the routine of leading them to a booth, giving them their menus and listing off the specials. Sam could tell her smile was fake, and noticed the lines of stress across her forehead, yet it was a very good fake smile and he nodded along as he should.

Once they were sat down in a booth two down from the door, Dean immediately started scouring the menu for something to eat.

"Would you check this out Sammy?! They've got chicken fried steak! Chicken. And Steak. On one plate." Dean grinned. "I think I'm going to like it here Sammy."

Only Sam wasn't really listening. On the other side of the room, taking an order from another booth was a girl. She had red hair, but it sure as hell was no dye job, and as she smiled at the women she was serving it felt like the sun had lit up the room. There was no falseness in that smile, her hair was half pulled up away from her face and decorated with two yellow flowers down one side. Sam could feel himself staring but couldn't tear his eyes away from her as she laughed and put her fingers to her mouth when she replied to whomever she was talking.

"What are you – ?" Dean began, but right at that moment there came an almighty crash and the sound of a door being slammed. This finally diverted Sam's attention as his head flicked around so fast he cricked his neck. His hand reflexively snapped to the gun he had holstered in the back of his jeans, but relaxed again as a little blond haired girl came storming from round by the kitchen followed by a man in a shirt tucked into jeans which, in Sam's opinion, were a bit too tight.

"Sookie!" The man implored, obviously thinking she was being unreasonable about something or other.

"No!" yelled the blonde, far more ferociously than Sam thought was possible for someone so small. "Y'all can carry on being hateful and, and… prejudice!" Sam thought the black girl behind the bar was going to hit her at this point but a quick finger was pointed at her instead.

"Don't look at me like that Tara-Mae it is what it is and what it is, is prejudice! I expect it from all the dumb fucking rednecks around here but I thought y'all would be a bit better than that! Seems I was wrong 'bout that, but it doesn't mean that I have to stand around and listen to it!" She finished her rant and, with a slight hesitation as she looked around, seemingly only now noticing the packed bar staring at her, stormed out.

"Well," Dean said, a little too loudly, "I guess this isn't the quiet little town it seems to be."

After noise levels returned to nearly normal, Arlene came back to take their order. Dean, of course, ordered the chicken fried steak with apple pie for desert. Sam just went for the cheeseburger and fries. They got a beer each to drink and set about discussing the job.

"So all sorts of crazy shit has been happening in this town recently," Sam begun, his voice becoming a deep whisper, "there were two strings of murders, one was resolved as a fangbanger hater, but the other just stopped. There were at least two victims, both found with their hearts cut out. Then, nothing." Sam paused as Dean grumbled.

"What is it?"

"I bet it's those damn vamp assholes." Dean muttered angrily.

"Dean, neither of the victims was exsanguinated, I doubt a vampire would just leave a corpse full of blood just lying about." Sam explained, his patience with Dean's obsession was thinning.

"Anyway," He continued, "The murders stopped and everything went back to normal."

"So? What's that got to do with us?" Dean asked, losing interest slightly. He took a swig from his beer and winked at the girl behind the bar, who swiftly gave him the finger. Struggling not to laugh at Dean's hurt expression, Sam continued.

"Well, the thing is that just before the murders stopped there was a town wide blackout. No one remembers anything for at least a 24 hour period."

"So they had a barn dance and drank too much tequila. Why's that important?" Dean was being infuriating about things, as usual, but Sam knew he would turn him around, he always did.

Arlene came back at this point with their orders and Dean set about demolishing his steak. Sam ate a couple of fries as he made sure their waitress was out of earshot, before leaning in and dropping his voice again.

"Well, there were multiple reports of blackouts from a couple of residents throughout the previous week, but there were a few residents who saw them. They said they appeared drunk and were doing all sorts of crazy stuff like having sex in the streets." Dean looked half disgusted, half curious about this newest piece of information. "That's not all, there were also reports that people were walking around with black eyes."

Dean's eyes widened.

"You're thinking Demons?" He said incredulously. "In this town? Bit random don't you think?"

"What else do we know that has black eyes Dean?" Sam retorted, tired of being second guessed by his older brother and also tired in general.

"Alright, alright." Dean gestured with his cutlery for Sam to calm down. "I guess even if it's not demons, black eyes seem like our kind of thing."

"Thank you." Sam grumbled, finally turning to his cheeseburger.

An hour later, they arrived at a motel just outside Bon Temps. Sam was so worn out from the long drive down from Illinois that he collapsed on his bed fully clothed and was out like a light. He dreamed of red hair and sunshine.

* * *

The next morning Sam woke up to an empty room. He looked around, slightly confused, as Dean almost never went out without waking Sam up first.

He found his toothbrush in the duffel bag he didn't remember bringing in the previous night. He went into the bathroom, splashed some cold water to try and fight off the southern heat. Then he set about ridding his mouth of a dry morning taste whilst pottering about the room.

He picked up his phone and saw it was flashing that he had a message on his answer machine. He dialled the number and put it on speaker, presuming that Dean left a message to tell him where he was going. He set it on the table by the window as Dean's voice filled the room.

"Sam?! SAM! Listen, buddy you gotta help me! One of them is after me and I got no way out so when you get this… GOD DAMN IT SAM PICK UP YOUR PHONE! Oh God, Sam? SAMMY! SAA –"

The phone beeped to signal the end of the message but Sam was frozen in place. He suddenly sprang into action, only half aware of what he was doing as he flung his toothbrush out of his mouth, grabbed his jacket and the duffel bag still filled with weapons. He barely paused as he spat out toothpaste onto the grass verge whilst running into the parking lot.

Before he knew it Sam was driving as fast as he could back to the only place he knew where to start; Merlotte's bar. It didn't occur to him until he was half way there that he was in the Impala and how strange it was that Dean would have left it behind.


	2. Bad Day at Work

Arlene was having a terrible morning. Sookie hadn't turned up for work again, probably because she was running off about some damn vampire business. It wasn't healthy for a young girl, up all hours of the night going lord knows what. Let alone what it mus be doing to her sleeping patterns, how did the girl ever have time to get anything more than a couple of hours?

Plus, of course, she couldn't call in the new waitress seeing as she could only work nights. Arlene couldn't for the life of her understand why Sam had hired a vampire. Even if he had gone soft on the bloodsuckers, he knew how unreliable Sookie was at the moment, he could have at least gotten someone who they could call in during the day time.

Luckily it was quiet this morning, but that didn't mean Arlene appreciated having to do all the set-up, especially after she'd had to clear up everything last night since Sookie stormed out half way through her damn shift. She had already made sure all the tables were clean and all the knives and forks were set out. Then she's swept the floors and helped Terry bring in all the food from out back, before filling up all the ketchup and mustard bottles and setting them on every table. She had just brought out some fresh glasses from the kitchen and was half way through making the ice-tea

She had just brought out some fresh glasses from the kitchen and was half way through making the ice-tea when suddenly the door crashed open and a large man wearing an awful lot of plaid came barging in. He looked around before spotting Arlene and came rushing over to her.

"Arlene right?" he asked, obviously panicked, in an accent that was most definitely not from around here. He didn't give her time to respond before he continued. "I was in here last night, with my brother?" Arlene nodded at this, she remembered them well. It wasn't often Merlotte's got folk from out of town.

"I need to talk to your boss." He sounded urgent but Arlene was frozen out of surprise still. It wasn't until he made a sort of confused expression that she was shaken out of it.

"SAM!" she yelled without even turning her head as she was still taken aback by this urgent entrance.

"What?" said the man in front of her, looking severely puzzled.

"What?" Arlene parroted.

"Why did you yell my name?" in his confusion he seemed to have momentarily forgotten his panic.

"Oh! No! That's by boss's name." Arlene laughed awkwardly.

"Sam Merlotte, like the name on the roof." She added for clarity. Smiling again she leaned around the corner to see Sam's office door firmly shut.

"SAM!" She yelled more urgently this time. Why did all the weird stuff always happen to her? And why was the damn boss never around when she needed him?

"I'm sorry I don't think he's in." She told this Sam apologetically.

"Crap." Was all he said, lowering himself onto a barstool and putting his head in his hands.

"You look like you could use a drink." Arlene suggested sympathetically, he looked real upset about something. "What's wrong?"

"It's my brother; he's been abducted, probably by vampires."

"That's terrible!" Arlene replied earnestly poring a scotch out despite how early it was, "Damn fangs are always doing something horrible 'round here."

She couldn't keep the disgust out of her voice as she passed him the glass. She was getting sick and tired of all the drama since those vampires had turned up in her nice little town. Sam's head had shot up at her last sentence and he was looking at her with a hopeful expression.

"You know of any? From round here I mean? Where can I find them?" His tone was urgent again.

"Well, the only one who lives real close is vampire Bill, he lives in a house by the old cemetery, creepy as hell if you ask me, even for a vampire. Other than that the closest are in Shreve-" But Sam had already stood up, thrown some bills on the bar and was heading towards the door, leaving his drink untouched.

"Wait!" she yelled, hardly believing that she had to warn someone else. He paused by the door, "You seem like a nice guy, I'd hate to see you go and get yourself killed."

Sam just smiled at her knowingly.

"I think I'll be okay." And with that he turned and walked out.

"No! There's something you should know about Bill!" Arlene called after him desperately but he'd already gone.

She sighed, downed the abandoned scotch and headed out from behind the bar towards the back. As she rounded the corner she nearly walked straight into Sam. Sam her boss that is.

"Hey there Arlene! What's the rush?" He inquired, putting a hand on each of her arms to slow her down. She brushed him off.

"And where were you about five minutes ago?" She demanded.

"I was just out ba-" he began to gesture behind him before Arlene held up both hands to stop him.

"Y'know what? I don't even care." She snapped. "Seems like no one else wants to listen to me 'round here so I don't need your excuses neither." And with that she stalked off into the store room to get some more beer for behind the bar, leaving Sam with a confused look on his face. It was going to be another one of those days.


	3. Out of the Sun

Jessica was in the shower having just woken up for the night. Despite the renovations in Bill's house since he became king, sleeping still reminded her of the dirty cubby hole and she always felt dirty waking up.

Jess had always loved showers when she was alive, and she'd been almost surprised when she'd discovered that the small pleasure had remained. There were many things she missed from her human days, like food. Her tight-ass dad hadn't ever let her have take-out, but there were occasions when she'd been involved in a school play or something and someone had ordered pizza. She remembered the first time she'd had pizza; it was so delicious she had almost eaten an entire pepperoni by herself. Obviously, the thought of it now revolted her, but that didn't mean she didn't hold the memory fondly.

She was just rinsing the shampoo out of her hair when she heard noise from downstairs. It was quiet enough to not be one of the guards, but loud enough to be human. In a second she had dried herself and pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, leaving her hair in a sodden mess of tangles down her back. The mystery guest had made their way slowly towards Bill's office, stopping occasionally; to check for guards presumably. Bill had excused himself as soon as night had fallen. probably to save Sookie from something else, so she was the only vampire in the house.

As Jessica made her way down the stairs she dismissed the guards that she saw. There were only two and she wanted to see what the strange human wanted. She could smell him now, and there was something about his scent that seemed familiar but she couldn't place it. He was definitely male though; that much she could tell. He intrigued her, and she didn't want some trigger happy guard shooting him before she could play. Plus, she smiled, if he turned out to be boring she could just eat him. She could even tell Bill it was in self-defense.

She reached the bottom of the stairs and made her way over to the doors, behind which lay Bill's office. She silently opened them and stood inside, closing them just as silently behind her.

In front of her a man was bent over, looking through Bill's files and with his back to the door. He was big, very big. It wasn't that he was just tall, though he was very tall, maybe even taller than Eric. His shoulders were broad and thick. The strange thing was that although he looked completely out of proportion with his surroundings, he didn't with himself. There was a look Jessica had become accustomed to when men worked out or were overly muscular, where they seemed like there was too much muscle for their body. Yet this man looked just like a normal guy, albeit a hot one. It was like someone had taken him and made him a bit bigger.

She had recognized him immediately, of course, he was still wearing the distinctive red plaid shirt that looked about the size of a tent and seemed far to lumberjack for someone whose eyes looked so intelligent. He was the man who had been in Merlotte's the other night. Jess could have sworn he was looking at her, but then out came Sookie throwing one of her fits about Vampire equality. I mean, like Jess didn't know, she was a damn Vampire, but she never threw a fit about it. Other than with Arlene, but that bitch didn't count. After that he hadn't looked at her once.

Suddenly Jessica realized that she'd been standing there for a good five minutes and the man was still rummaging through Bill's things. She leaned nonchalantly against the wall with her hands behind her back.

"Hi there," Jess said simply, in her sweetest voice. The man jumped, spun around and pulled a gun out from inside his jacket in a split second, which he pointed at Jess's heart with a rock steady hand. Even as a vampire Jess was impressed by his speed, for a human that is. It was also unreasonably hot.

"You're, you're the girl from the bar," He said incredulously. He got real cute when he was confused, his nose crinkled and everything.

"_The _girl?" she queried, "So you noticed me then?"

He got really flustered at this point and it was all Jess could do to stop herself giggling.

"That's, that's not... what are you doing here?" he finally managed to get out.

"You mean you haven't figured it out yet?" Jess was having more fun than she'd expected.

"You're… a vampire?" he choked.

"Not just any vampire," she jokingly taunted, "My daddy's the king."

"What?" was all he managed.

"Yup, so I guess, that sorta makes me the princess don't it?" she pushed herself away from the wall and walked over casually to the desk. She sat down on the chair, kicking some papers aside so she could put her feet up. His gun, which had previously lowered in his confusion, had been aimed straight at her again as soon as she'd moved.

"It was a bit dumb wasn't it? Coming here at night that is?"

He didn't reply.

"You're lucky Bill wasn't here, he tends to be a bit grouchy when he wakes up," she twirled her hair around her fingers as she spoke.

This time he smirked.

"That wasn't luck, I'm not stupid. I just didn't figure there were more of you here. Now, where's my brother?" On the last sentence his voice dropped. It sent a shudder through Jess, but she was also thrown off slightly.

"Your brother?" she asked.

"Don't act like you don't know. He was taken, by vampires, and you're the only fangs in town so I'm told." He lent down one hand on the desk to get closer to her, gun pointed straight to her heart, expression deadly. "These here are silver bullets you know. So I'll ask again. Where. Is. My. Brother?"

"He's the guy you were with last night right?" Jess asked, trying not to be shaken, not just by the prospect of silver, but how damn hot he looked, all serious like that.

"YOU KNOW DAMN WELL WHO HE IS!" he yelled knocking over a lamp in fury. The gun never moved an inch.

"And what makes you think we took him?"

"I told you…" he began.

"Oh I see, so just because we're vampires you presume we're all killers and kidnappers?" her voice dripped with sarcasm.

"I know it was vampires, for a fact, so don't try acting innocent."

"Did it ever cross your tiny mind that it might have been the famously hostile vampires in Shreveport who run the vampire bar, rather than the vampire king and his progeny who are very well known for mainstreaming?" Jess was pissed now. Sure, she might have had few ideas of drinking him before, but he didn't have to be so damn prejudice. Plus, no one was going to accuse Bill of anything bad, not when he'd been so good to her.

"Why should I believe anything you say, or your crazy vampire king for that matter?" he shouted in defiance.

Jess shot out of her chair and slammed her hands down on the desk. The man immediately leapt back but his other hand was now steadying his gun, ready to shoot at a moment's notice.

"Don't you EVER talk about Bill like that!" she realized that her fangs had come out but she didn't care. "Just because we're vampires doesn't mean that we go 'round kidnapping people for the hell of it, and it certainly doesn't mean that you can just accuse us of random shit just because of where we live!"

He paused, as if he was weighing up his options. He took one hand off the gun and put it up in a show of surrender.

"Okay, okay, look, why don't you just put your fangs away, and I'll lower my gun and we can talk?" he said, his voice calm. He was poised though, ready to spring into action should she suddenly decide she want to rip his throat out.

Jess lowered herself back into the chair, glaring at him and making a show of retracting her fangs.

"Fucking humans," she muttered for good measure.

"I get that I shouldn't have been snooping around," he admitted carefully, both hands still on the gun even though it was pointed at the floor. "It's just, it's my brother."

There was a slight break in his voice, barely perceptible to human ears, but Jessica caught it and she found herself feeling sorry for the intruder.

"How do you know it was vampires?" she asked. The predatory tone that her voice had when she was barely in control of her actions had vanished. She felt more human now; maybe it was thinking of her little sister that did that. She'd hate to think of her having been taken and to not be able to do anything.

"My brother, he wasn't," he paused and shuffled his feet awkwardly, it was on odd gesture in a man so large, yet somehow it fit his personality. "He wasn't exactly friendly towards… your kind."

He looked kind of sheepish at this.

"And what about you?" Jess inquired.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, are you friendly to 'my kind'? Or do you hate us all too?" she meant it to sound like a throw away comment but a venom crept into her voice.

"You guys are dangerous," he shrugged, "You're strong, and fast, and deadly. But I don't hate you."

His voice was earnest, but Jessica wasn't convinced. After all the hatred she faced, it was hard to accept that someone just, didn't hate her. He hadn't even given a reason, or maybe he was just naïve.

"Yeah, sure, you think we can all just hold hands and sing songs together in peace," she retorted. Surprisingly, he laughed. Not a proper laugh, just an upturn of his lips as he looked to the ground and chuckled slightly.

"No, obviously there's always going to be problems. Naturally, we're food to you. There might be this whole Tru Blood deal, but we both know that's not enough for most vampires," he paused slightly, frowning to himself. "But honestly? I've seen evil, true evil, and you're not it. None of your kind is. You're no worse than humans. Then again, as my brother would say, humans are fucking crazy."

Jess had to laugh at that.

"Who are you?" she asked incredulously. He didn't talk like normal people, his eyes looked too old for his face and he wore an expression like he had seen far too much.

"My name is Sam Winchester, I'm a hunter."

"A hunter? A hunter of what?" she was wary now.

"Everything really," Sam said simply, "Everything supernatural that is."

"So you hunt my kind?"

"We used to, when vampires still fed just on humans and before all these politics got in the way."

"Why?" she asked. She probably should feel more outraged, but all she had was curiosity. Never before had she heard of a 'hunter'.

"We protect people. If people are getting hurt by something supernatural, whether it's a vampire, a spirit, or whatever, we hunt it down and kill it," he sounded matter-of-fact, but there was also a hint of determination in his eyes.

"So are spirits evil?"

"What do you mean?" his brow furrowed.

"You said that you had seen true evil, so what is it that's so much worse than us?" Jess asked simply. She sort of felt defensive; like she wanted to be the most dangerous thing he had met.

He sighed and looked to the ground again.

"Look, I just want to find my brother, I don't really have time for twenty questions," he snapped. That was a touchy subject then.

"So you want me to help you rescue the vampire hater?"

"Dean might be a lot of things, but he's my brother," he pleaded, "You seem to care about your maker, is he like a dad to you?"

The fact that Sam had noticed and remembered how Jess cared for Bill took her off guard for a second. She nodded.

"I can't see my family no more. Not that I mind that but," she hesitated, wondering why she was opening up to this stranger. "He's all the family I've got now."

Sam nodded knowingly.

"Both my parents are dead, I don't even remember my mom," he laughed slightly, the kind people do when they're trying not to cry. Then he looked at her, dead in the eye, with a look so lost that Jessica wanted to reach out and hold him.

"Please, Dean's all I've got left. He practically raised me, and I just…" he trailed off.

"Well it's not Bill," she stated firmly, trying not to show that he'd gotten to her.

"I believe you," he said quickly, with new hope, "But you mentioned other vampires, ones in… in Shreveport?"

Jess sighed and stood up suddenly and Sam reacted slightly in surprise but righted himself quickly. She grabbed a jacket from a stool to the side and shrugged it on. She didn't need it of course, but old habits and all that.

"Fucking Eric," she muttered under her breath, "C'mon then, you won't get anywhere close without me."

Sam scrambled into action, scooping up a duffel bag that Jess hadn't noticed before. It looked like a doll's on his large shoulders. Now he was standing close she could see that there was a good eight inches height difference. Somehow this just made him more attractive.

"Well Eric's not going to like you," she grinned, "You're probably the only man in a fifty mile radius that could look him right in the eye."

He looked puzzled, and stared down at his body like he hadn't noticed himself before. Then looked back up and grinned at her sheepishly.

They moved towards the door and, to Jess's surprise, he opened it for her. She was about to make a sarcastic remark when she met his eye and suddenly became flustered. So she smiled slightly and continued walking through.

They walked through the grounds in silence before they reached where Sam had parked his car. It was a stunning muscle car, painted in deep black. Jess looked up at him with wide eyes; she had never seen such a beautiful car in her life. Rushing over to it she ran her hand across the roof and down the bonnet, caressing the stunning angles and marveling over the tiniest details.

"Is this yours?" she asked excitedly.

"Err, actually it's Deans," he replied, with an expression half way between bemused and just plain amused.

"It's gorgeous!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, it is pretty cool," Sam admitted.

"Cool? This is beautiful! We get to drive it to Shreveport right?" she felt like a little girl on Christmas morning.

"Yeah, yeah," Sam smiled, "You know, you might just be the one to convince Dean that not all vampires are evil. Nothing convinces Dean of a person's moral standing like their car taste."

Jess just grinned and waited whilst Sam unlocked the door. As she pulled open the door Sam stopped her with a gesture.

"By the way, you know my name but I don't know yours?"

"Oh, it's Jessica! Nice to meet you," she introduced herself lightly.

Sam froze, staring at her with wide eyes, the blood seemed to drain out of his face.

"Sam?" she prompted, ignoring how nice it felt to say his name for the first time. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No! No," Sam jolted out of it, but still looked as though he had seen a ghost.

"Okay…" she said hesitantly.

"Let's…" he cleared his throat slightly and then it was suddenly as though nothing had happened. "Let's just find Dean."

Jess nodded slightly before gently sliding into the passenger seat. Sam sat down next to her a few seconds later. He seemed fine, but he was gripping the steering wheel a little too tightly as he started the engine up. In the back of her mind she appreciated the soft growl the car made as she pulled out onto the road, but her main focus was on the man by her side. Silently they sat in each other's company as tarmac slid underneath them. Jess stole glances at the broad hunter but he seemed intent on the road in front of him, his grip still tight. Finally they pulled up at a junction in the road and Sam broke his gaze to look at her intently. Jess felt a sensation deep in the pit of her stomach, and it wasn't holy unpleasant.

"Right," he said; his voice deep and filled with determination, "Which way to Shreveport?"


	4. The Silver Bullet

Sookie was in a good mood.

She tried not to think about how rare an occasion that this had been recently and concentrated on Bill who was sat in the car next to her. Despite his usual brooding look she could tell he was at least a little happier than he had been the last couple of weeks.

The night was fairly cool by Louisiana standards, but Sookie still had the window open a crack and could feel a breeze gently ruffling her hair as they glided down the road. She leant back in her seat and let out a contented sigh. It felt good to not have anything to worry about. There was no one trying to kill her (that she knew of), her and Bill were happier than they'd ever been and Eric finally seemed to be backing off and not causing trouble. All together it added up to about the most relaxed she'd ever felt since Bill had walked into Merlotte's that summer night.

She let out a large yawn and stretched her hands above her head. As her arms fell back down to her lap Sookie felt a wave of exhaustion wash over her. What with all the excitement and stress recently, she hadn't noticed how much the lack of sleep had taken it's toll.

The yawn drew Bill's attention to her and he smiled gently.

"You need some more sleep," he chided gently, an amused glint in his eye.

"Well some of us have a job to go to you know," she joked, "We can't all be sleeping from dawn 'till dusk."

Bill chuckled, but then sobered slightly.

"I don't want you suffering because of me Sookie. You should be living in the daylight and sleeping regular times."

"What so you'd have me in bed by nine?" she replied sarcastically but with an amused smile, "I'm a grown woman Bill, I don't have a bedtime anymore."

"You know that's not what I meant," Bill scolded, a small smile playing about his lips.

"Well when we get back home you can tuck me in and read me a bedtime story, or anything your heart desires."

"Anything?" Bill queried a little too innocently.

A coy smile played about Sookie's lips as she leant over and kissed him on the cheek.

"Anything." She whispered in his ear, in what she hoped was a seductive tone.

Bill looked her in the eyes for a brief second before he fixed his eyes back on the road and pressed down hard on the accelerator. Sookie giggled as she put her had back in her seat and felt the rush of speed and anticipation course through her body.

* * *

The mansion came hurtling into view as Bill sped down the driveway, coming to an abrupt halt in front of the entrance. Sookie could never get over how much it had changed since Bill became king. The once broken down, dark old building was now flooded with light. The porch was now held up with columns made to look far more impressive by being illuminated with large spotlights casting impressive shadows; contrasting with the sparkling white of the porch itself. The walls were spotlessly clean, even from the outside, and the grounds were kept pristine, with every blade of grass looking as though it had been measured out and cut with nail scissors. Sookie vaguely wondered how much it cost to keep everything so wonderful in a house so big and whether they employed vampires, with their keen senses, to keep every detail looking so perfect.

Once the car had stopped the door was being opened for her by Bill himself, having sped around from his side without her noticing. She took the hand he offered, and let him help her stand up. She didn't need the help, obviously, but every time he did this it was a little reminder that Bill was from a different time and she didn't want to forget that. It was one of the things she loved about him, how he was so old and yet so modern at the same time. Sookie was intrigued by which things he retained from his time and which things had changed along with the rest of the world. She wasn't 100% sure she'd figured it all out yet, and that was fine with her.

Once she was on her feet, Bill threw the keys to one of the guards who Sookie knew would then move it out of sight until he needed it again. _I could get used to this_, she smiled to herself.

Holding her hand Bill moved towards the house. Sookie trailed behind him, only slightly, as the guards still made her nervous. It wasn't that she was worried they would hurt her, most of them knew her by name now anyway, but she always felt unspeakably rude just walking past them all without saying hello and it put her on edge slightly.

As they walked through the door, Bill nodded to the guard outside it in greeting and in thanks, but once they moved across the entrance he froze.

"Bill?" a hint of concern crept into Sookies voice, "What is it? What's wrong?"

Bill spun around and walked back to the guard outside the door.

"Who has been in here?" he asked, with a tone as deadly as it was deep.

"N-no one," the guard responded, with a look of confusion at his boss's anger.

"Someone has been in my house!" Bill raised his voice and looked as though it was taking all his restraint to not kill him.

"There are guards all over the grounds sir, no one could have possibly-" the guard began.

"I am not asking IF someone was here!" Sookie could tell he was losing his patience, "There WAS someone here! Now, WHO WAS IT?!"

"I-I-I don't know sir, there's been no report of a breech!" trying desperately to cover his ass, he couldn't help but flinch away from Bill's glare.

"I had gathered that much from your complete ignorance on the matter," Bill growled, "So explain to me how a _human man_ could have breached top level security trained by, and working directly for, the authority and made it into the home of the vampire king of the _entire state of Lousiana_?"

The guard stuttered and mumbled something about a full scale investigation, but Bill wasn't listening. Suddenly his head snapped up and he looked towards the door.

"Jessica," he muttered in horror.

With the terrified guard still wittering on Bill brushed past Sookie so fast that she felt a gust of wind push her back a step. She heard him tearing apart every room in the house, calling Jessica's name every so often with his voice filling with desperation as time went on. She saw a blur as he fled into his office, still calling her name, then there was a sudden and dreading silence as he stopped entirely.

Sookie ran over to the office doors which stood flung open. Inside she could see Bill standing behind his desk holding a black cloth, inside which sat a lone bullet made of solid silver. Sookie gasped gently, before she saw the look on Bill's face. He looked as though his entire world was crashing down around him, but he no longer had a reason to care. He was staring at the bullet with a look of utter despair and hopelessness. Sookie pulled together her surprise and moved slowly over to him.

"Bill?" she implored, testing how he responded to her voice. There was nothing.

"It's just a bullet Bill, it hasn't even been fired. There's no blood, no mess or struggle, Jess is fine. She's gonna be fine," Sookie felt as though she was convincing herself more than Bill, who hadn't even acknowledged that he'd heard her.

Slowly he lowered the bullet and his eyes moved to the door. A thundercloud of danger passed into his expression and he stalked towards the open front entrance like a lightning bolt trying not to strike. Sookie followed him slowly and quietly.

When he reached the porch he turned towards the guard who was staring at him like he might explode. Bill paused for just a second, but it felt like ten minutes and Sookie could have sworn she was holding her breath. Then he did explode.

He grabbed the guard by the neck and held him six inches off the floor. His fangs had dropped down and he was baring them at the guard as though daring the quivering man to give Bill a reason to kill him. He held up the bullet to the man's face.

"Where. Is. My. _DAUGHTER_?" Bill screamed the last word as though it was splitting him in two.

The guard could do nothing but stutter. Sookie knew that Bill would kill him if she didn't do something. She took a deep breath and overcame every instinct in her body to touch a gentle hand on Bill's forearm.

"He doesn't know anything Bill, hurting him won't help Jessica," Sookie wondered if Bill could hear the shaking in her voice.

He looked down at her, and a tear of blood dripped down his cheek. He let the guard drop like he couldn't physically hold him up anymore. The guard fell to his side clutching his neck and began dragging himself hurriedly towards the stairs.

"I can't loose her Sookie, I just can't," Bill's voice cracked and his eyes were fixed on the floor.

"You haven't lost her, you'd know if she was... _gone_, right?" Sookie asked, but received no response, "Vampire's can feel it with their progeny's can't they?"

Bill nodded.

"Well you haven't felt anything like that have you?" Sookie continued desperately.

Bill shook his head slowly.

"See, you don't even know if she was here when that guy came, she might have gone to a see a friend, or gone to Merlotte's for an extra shift."

Bill raised his gaze to meet her eyes, and whilst there was still all the pain and worry from before, there was a new hope there too.

"Come on," she tried to make her voice light, "Let's go to Merlotte's and see if she's there, and if not... well at least it's a start."

Bill nodded again and looked determined now. He stood up straighter and turned to walk down the stairs. A different guard was at the bottom and Bill barked at him to bring the car. The guard began hurrying off, but obviously wasn't fast enough for Bill's liking because a second later he had passed the guard and was around the side of the building before Sookie had even realized he'd gone.

A moment later the car was hurtling full-pelt towards the porch and pulled up with a screech of brakes. Sookie hurried around to the passenger door as quickly as she could and dived into the seat. Bill was already pulling away as she was closing the door behind her and soon they were driving hell-bent down the familiar route with the car full of tension and dread.

Sookie couldn't believe that less than half an hour ago things had seemed so calm and normal. She stifled a sarcastic laugh. _When was anything ever normal?_


End file.
